Tag: Tha Carter

It’s that time again, boys and girls. Finish up watching the throne or whatever it is you are doing to pass the time and get ready for the long awaited and highly anticipated arrival of Weezy F’s latest flagship album, Tha Carter IV. Although this is his ninth studio release, Wayne has really found his stride with mainstream “suburban” fame after the release of Tha Carter III roughly three years ago with countless mixtape and underground releases between then and now to hold us over. So does the album hold up? In short, yes.

It is kind of hard for me to know what to expect when I go into one of Lil Tunechi’s songs blind. Some of the things I love about him can easily be some of the things that I absolutely hate if the beat is off or the flow just is not working for me. His style as a “punch line” rapper relying heavily on similes can be downright irritating at times while similar deliveries have me saying “oh sh*t!” out loud. Although this album is not lacking at all on that style they at least do not feel as goofy or undercooked as other material I have heard from him recently in mixtapes.

The guest spots on this album are a highlight all by themselves. Names I have not seen associated with anything mainstream in a very long time such as Shyne, Nas and Tech N9ne laying some serious tracks down along side modern favorites like Drake, Rick Ross and Cory Gunz as well as people I really want to hear more from like Jadakiss and Bun-B equals a very impressive line-up in my eyes. Well, guest spots might be the wrong term since Interlude (performed by Tech N9ne & André 3000*) and Outro (performed by Bun B, Nas, Shyne and Busta Rhymes) DO NOT even have Wayne on the tracks at all, which is fine. I am surprised though that we do not see more artists from Young Money or Cash Money but I am sure we’ll see more from them in a separate EP or mixtape soon enough though.

Highlighted tracks from the album are John, which is a current radio single featuring Rick Ross, and the future single It’s Good featuring Jadakiss and Drake but each track sounds like they are ready for airplay by design. Top notch producers such as T-Minus and Cool & Dre bring their all to these tracks giving us a range of beats from club bangers to slow rider songs but I feel that the album could have benefited from a single head producer giving us a body of work akin to a movie rather than all of these different guys bringing us a well crafted series of singles. The rhymes themselves are top of the class with more than a number of memorable phrases such as “Life is a choice, death is a decision”from Blunt Blowin’ and “Karma is a bitch but make sure that bitch is beautiful” from She Will. I look forward to seeing selected lines from these songs littering my twitter feed over the next few weeks as more people get into the album.

When it was all said and done I felt like this is the album we were all expecting. After years of delays and disappointing releases, such as the experimental rock album Rebirth, I was afraid as to what to expect when I pressed play. Was he going to be almost fully disconnected from the streets like Kanye is rapping about all of the upper class shit that he now has or was Weezy going to keep it real reppin’ the hood despite the money? I am happy to report that at least from where I am standing as a kid living in suburban Philadelphia that this release is very synonymous with the current voice of the streets.

Tell us what you think of the album in the comments below and check out Tha Carter IV Deluxe Edition when it drops Monday at midnight after the VMAs on iTunes for $15 and everywhere else on August 29th from Cash Money Records Inc.